The picks are in: No. 1 Alabama a popular choice to survive test at No. 5 LSU

Alabama head coach Nick Saban, center, holds up the Coaches' Trophy after the win over LSU during the BCS Championship Monday, Jan. 9, 2012, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, La. (Press-Register/Mike Kittrell)

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- Everyone and their brother has given their take about tonight's showdown between Alabama-LSU.

The majority of those folks have made a prediction about tonight's outcome, too.

It's been our job on this lovely Louisiana morning to compile the most notable ones.

You should notice a theme emerge among them.

-- Matt Hayes and Steve Greenberg of Sporting News each have the Crimson Tide winning by at least a touchdown. Greenberg goes with Alabama 20-13 and Hayes says 24-9.

"My, my, it's tempting to side with utter BCS chaos," Greenberg writes. "I've got the sort of
shadow-casting schnozz that allows me to pretend not to see what's
right under it, too. But no—I can't pick against the Tide. They're
better than the Tigers pretty much across the board."

-- Edward Aschoff and Chris Low of ESPN.com each have the Tide winning by double digits. Aschoff says 23-13 and Low says 21-10.

-- Stewart Mandell of SI.com says it won't even be close. He has Alabama winning 20-3.

"The only reason to suggest the Tigers can pull the upset is their home
crowd," Mandell writes. "LSU's swarming defense could limit Tide quarterback AJ McCarron,
but the Tigers' rank 89th in pass efficiency and 81st in sacks allowed.
They may not be any more effective moving the ball than they were in
last year's BCS championship game shutout."

-- Both LSU beat writers from NOLA.com picked Alabama to win. Jim Kleinpeter says it will be a 16-6 Tide victory while Randy Rosetta goes with 23-10.

-- Bruce Feldman of CBSSports.com says the Tide will pick up a valuable road win in a hostile environment.

"No one has really tested Bama yet, and LSU has the studs in the D-line to do that, but the Tide has a proven steady QB in AJ McCarron who leads a balanced enough attack to keep Nick Saban's team on track," Feldman writes.
"In two seasons as the Tide's starter, McCarron has a 10-1 TD-INT ratio
against ranked teams. I'll go with the team with the more reliable
quarterback in a frenzied atmosphere."

-- John Adams, a columnist at the Knoxville News Sentinel, says Alabama will win just like it did in the BCS title game: 21-0.

"I'm not suggesting the Tide will prevent the Tigers from making it to
midfield, or perhaps even to the brink of field-goal range, Adams writes. "But why should anyone expect LSU to make any more headway on the
scoreboard in this game than it did in the national championship game?"